WHICH WOULD YOU RATHER BE?

One New Yorker cartoonist gives a younger (of course, Methuselah would be younger) one a chance to show his chops. And the chops are considerable. With an interrogatory text running to just a few words per page, readers are asked in dialogue balloons whether they’d prefer to be a stick or a stone, an elbow or a knee, rain or snow, thunder or lightning, and so on. Bliss (A Fine, Fine School, 2001, etc.) reduces the actors in his painted scenes to a bare minimum—a magic hat, from which a plush rabbit with a wand conjures each alternative, and a boy and a girl wordlessly (until the end) reacting to their choices. Each form, each change of expression, is modeled with both spirit and exquisite skill, in subtle gradations of light and color. The final query, “Would you rather be alone . . . or together?” leaves the children undecided—an open invitation to readers to ponder this life-shaping choice. This thoughtful, though less gleefully silly, alternative to John Burningham’s classic Would You Rather? (1978) showcases an up-and-coming illustrator with plenty of promise. (Picture book. 5-9)